Called to Overcome....

[Helen]

Hebrews 12:1 "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us..."

I was just wondering today what is the besetting sin?
What is it that you know that we must overcome?

As I mused on this, I began to think that it could only be doubt.
Israel could not enter in because of their unbelief.
God had spoken a word, and they gave up on it.
Eve fell for the trap of " Hath God said..." She couldn't believe unto the end..' ,,,she doubted God.
She did not overcome the voice...

So as it says "the" sin...is it one sin that we all have a weakness for, or do we all have a different sin weakness.

Just wondering....H

 

[FHII]

The chapter goes on to say, "looking unto Jesus: the author and finisher of our faith. Who for the joy set before endured the cross... " Romans 5 says, "for by one man sin [singular] entered into the world..."

Romans 7... Paul said sin [again singular and not plural] dwelt in his flesh.

So we can say doubt, unbelief, lack of faith is "the sin". Can't find an argument against that. But the sin was inherited from Adam and dwells in our flesh.

If we can say all have this sin, we should ask if all have doubted. Again Romans 5 says, "nevertheless death reigned from Adam till Moses, even over them which had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression...."

In any way... We are to lay it aside. We are to look to Jesus as the means to do that.

 

[VictoryinJesus]

Hebrews 12:1 "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us..."

I was just wondering today what is the besetting sin?
As I mused on this, I began to think that it could only be doubt.
Israel could not enter in because of their unbelief.
God had spoken a word, and they gave up on it.
Eve fell for the trap of " Hath God said..." She could 'believe unto the end..' she doubted God.

So as it says "the" sin...is it one sin that we all have a weakness for, or do we all have a different sin weakness.

Just wondering....H

ByGrace, I have struggle with this one, and prayed a lot over it. What is a besetting sin? For me: it means hewned in on all sides by the enemy. That besetting sin being the one sin that drags us away from the grace and mercy found in Christ. It's that one sin that comes again and again whispering it is a sin too big to be forgiven, the sin that mocks grace and tells us we must work and strive to be good enough. Our weakest point, and the enemy uses it. But I also believe it is the area God uses to demonstrate His power to overcome...when we are hewed in on all sides and out of strength.

Someone once told me they gave up and no longer went to God to pray, because a sin was too big and always won out. That is what a besetting sin will do. "You will never be good enough" it says, "you are no child of God. YOu can't be...you are a sinner."


Beset means literally to 'surround with hostile intent',

 

[Helen]

ByGrace, I have struggle with this one, and prayed a lot over it. What is a besetting sin? For me: it means hewned in on all sides by the enemy. That besetting sin being the one sin that drags us away from the grace and mercy found in Christ. It's that one sin that comes again and again whispering it is a sin too big to be forgiven, the sin that mocks grace and tells us we must work and strive to be good enough. Our weakest point, and the enemy uses it. But I also believe it is the area God uses to demonstrate His power to overcome...when we are hewed in on all sides and out of strength.

Someone once told me they gave up and no longer went to God to pray, because a sin was too big and always won out. That is what a besetting sin will do. "You will never be good enough" it says, "you are no child of God. YOu can't be...you are a sinner."


Beset means literally to 'surround with hostile intent',

Thank you..good answer...I like that.

I does stand out to me that it just says "let us lay aside"...which speaks of His victory and not our fight. Much of our fight and struggle is because 'we try' rather than :- " For we which have believed do enter into rest..."
Our 'work' is in believing what He said and did...and that 'work' will be with us unto the end I think.
"laying aside' as you said...seems linked to the mind..and the enemy chatter that is constantly against us.

 

[Helen]

Salvation as we know is a gift, as free as the air we breathe.
It is obtained, like any other gift, without price there are no other terms.

"To him that worketh not, but believeth."
* Yet on the other side of things, if we are to gain the crown that Paul spoke of we must work for it.
First Corinthians: "For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. But if any man buildeth on the foundation gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, stubble; each man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it is revealed in fire: and the fire itself shall prove each man's work, of what sort it is. If any man's work shall abide, which he built thereon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as through fire."
We can see from this that though we may be saved, but all our works can be burned up!

I may have our journey through life, yet with no reward at the end... saved, yet "so as by fire."
I believe that a great many will 'barely get to heaven' as Lot got out of Sodom, with nothing much left, all dead works destroyed and nothing in our hand.

We know that we are called to The Overcoming Life in God.

This as I see it is the fight between flesh and spirit. The old-man and the new-man.
Jesus spoke of His Father House and said- " I go to prepare a place for you.....that where I am, there ye may be also." Where is He...sitting in the throne with Father God .
Jesus painted us a picture...what it all means we will have to wait and see. But that is the crown that Paul speaks about and also The Lamb in Revelation..." That no man take thy crown.."
We have a calling...and it is the calling to Overcome .

Overcome the voice of the Enemy in our ear ....overcome the flesh...overcome what some will tell us is "what God is like"...overcome our own so easy deceptions and misunderstandings..
People tell other christians that we must " keep the ten commandments"...and it seems they must then strive to do that in their lives...yet I do not for one moment believe that this is the overcoming spoken of in Rev 3 and with all the rewards for overcoming spoken of here.
Ending with... v 21" To him that Overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.
22 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches."

" I go to prepare a place for you.....that where I am, there ye may be also."

 

[amadeus]

@"ByGrace"
I would say that it is not the sin itself that we are to overcome. It is rather the way we follow that leads us to repeat sins which we have already confessed to God. Jesus has paid the price for our sins, but he wants us to stop sinning and become witnesses to everyone around us as He was witness. He has provided a Way.

The way we follow when we sin, [whatever we might believe our besetting sin (or sins) to be] stem from what we read here:

"For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." I John 2:16-17

The "world" is not planet Earth, but this little lump specially formed dirt that we call our body of flesh. It contains all that we are. It also contains 1) the lust of the flesh 2) the lust of the eyes, and 3) the pride of life. When any one or more of these is followed the result is sin. We sin repeatedly because we have not yet overcome the underlying causes. We cannot, NOT alone.

God sent His Son so that the means to overcome became available to this corrupted creature that each of us, the "old man" of us is. When Adan and Eve they yielded that first time to their temptation and disobeyed God, they corrupted that which was clean and very good and uncorrupted. They were corrupted and their children inherited their corruption and built upon it. The result of that over the centuries is what we see all around us.

God has given us a new start, but the "old man" must be completely killed [overcome]. The old man is our beastly nature for that is what it it, the nature of a beast [or beasts]

"I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts." Ecc 3:18

But then consider these words also written by Solomon:

"Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars:
She hath killed her beasts; she hath mingled her wine; she hath also furnished her table." Prov 9:1-2

Our wisdom is to use that which God has given us through His Son to kill those beasts, which we are.
Before Jesus came and the Holy Ghost was poured out these words of Jeremiah applied to us and they still apply to our old man. The essence of the old man is the beasts which need to be killed:

"O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." Jerem 10:23

"But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." Acts 1:8

 

[Willie T]

There is a denomination that truly believes this was God's command to Adam, and they actually live this way.

No, I won't discuss it publically.

 

[Helen]

There is a denomination that truly believes this was God's command to Adam, and they actually live this way.

No, I won't discuss it publically.

Not sure if you are referring to Amadeus' post or the opening post?

The Movement that we were in for many years..believed and taught Overcoming , .. Dominion...Son's of God.. I believe it, I see it in the scriptures...(although we are no longer in that movement now.)
For sure God's plan is not only "happy time in heaven later." but also a plan for our lives in the here and now. The Christian life is far from boring.

 

[mjrhealth]

That besetting sin being the one sin that drags us away from the grace and mercy found in Christ.

The problem is there is no sin that can drag us away from His mercy and Grace, it is doubt that causes us to turn.;

And than some of us have a thorn in our side so that we wont get arrogant and proud, and Im fine with that, we are not yet made perfect.

 

[Willie T]

Not sure if you are referring to Amadeus' post or the opening post?

The Movement that we were in for many years..believed and taught Overcoming , .. Dominion...Son's of God.. I believe it, I see it in the scriptures...(although we are no longer in that movement now.)
For sure God's plan is not only "happy time in heaven later." but also a plan for our lives in the here and now. The Christian life is far from boring.

I've been doing a lot of reading about Reconstructionists. I like a lot of what they say... but find fault with a lot, too. Why did you leave?

 

[Rollo Tamasi]

The Apostolic Reformation
Dominionism
They sound good but up close not so good.

 

[GodsGrace]

Hebrews 12:1 "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us..."

I was just wondering today what is the besetting sin?
What is it that you know that we must overcome?

As I mused on this, I began to think that it could only be doubt.
Israel could not enter in because of their unbelief.
God had spoken a word, and they gave up on it.
Eve fell for the trap of " Hath God said..." She couldn't believe unto the end..' ,,,she doubted God.
She did not overcome the voice...

So as it says "the" sin...is it one sin that we all have a weakness for, or do we all have a different sin weakness.

Just wondering....H

Interesting thread.

THE besetting sin, or the "sin which so easily entangles us" has to be different for each person.

Just before this Paul says "laying aside every encumbrance".
This is speaking to an individual person so the very next sentence, which is 12:1 must also be speaking to each individual person.

We each have a weakness and it is this weakness that satan uses to entangle us.

It reminds me of 2 Peter 2:20...they were once entangled in the defilements of the world.

Different entanglements for each one of us.
Different sin that besets us individually since we all do not have the same weakness.

I cannot think of a sin that besets everyone except the denying of the HolySpirit and here Paul is talking to believers.

 

[GodsGrace]

The Apostolic Reformation
Dominionism
They sound good but up close not so good.

What is it and why is it not good?

 

[Rollo Tamasi]

You can start by learning what dominionism is.

 

[GodsGrace]

You can start by learning what dominionism is.

You can't just tell me?
I don't like using the internet unless I already know something.
How do I know I'll be reading the correct description of it???

 

[Rollo Tamasi]

Hebrews 12:1 "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us..."

I was just wondering today what is the besetting sin?
What is it that you know that we must overcome?

As I mused on this, I began to think that it could only be doubt.
Israel could not enter in because of their unbelief.
God had spoken a word, and they gave up on it.
Eve fell for the trap of " Hath God said..." She couldn't believe unto the end..' ,,,she doubted God.
She did not overcome the voice...

So as it says "the" sin...is it one sin that we all have a weakness for, or do we all have a different sin weakness.

Just wondering....H

1 Peter 2:11;
"Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in this world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul".

 

[Rollo Tamasi]

You can't just tell me?
I don't like using the internet unless I already know something.
How do I know I'll be reading the correct description of it???

How do you know I'll tell you the best description of it?
You need to do your own homework because understanding dominionism and how groups use it today cannot be done in a few sentences.
It's best to have a little background and then discuss it.

 

[Helen]

I've been doing a lot of reading about Reconstructionists. I like a lot of what they say... but find fault with a lot, too. Why did you leave?

That is a new one to me...Reconstructionists!!

Sounds a little legalistic...legalism, control, and dominance were the reason we left the movement we were in. The vision itself I could witness to....but the control of the peoples lives and finances....caused to disagree with so much. When the lead apostles started telling the people what 'God was saying' for them to do...time to go.
Legalism is oppressive and stifling.

 

[Willie T]

That is a new one to me...Reconstructionists!!

Sounds a little legalistic...legalism, control, and dominance were the reason we left the movement we were in. The vision itself I could witness to....but the control of the peoples lives and finances....caused to disagree with so much. When the lead apostles started telling the people what 'God was saying' for them to do...time to go.
Legalism is oppressive and stifling.

The movement is known by several names; Dominionism, Christian Reconstructionism, and Theonomy, three that I know of. But, it doesn't really sound like what you were involved with. Who knows?

Their main thing seems to be that the government should not be involved in economics anywhere as much as they are. And, I am a big believer in THAT.

 

[GodsGrace]

How do you know I'll tell you the best description of it?
You need to do your own homework because understanding dominionism and how groups use it today cannot be done in a few sentences.
It's best to have a little background and then discuss it.

I only ask persons I trust REAL questions...
Not those I ask to let people think.
So I would trust you with the reply.

This is what I read:

What is Christian dominionism?

Dominion Theology - Wikipedia

Well?
I guess I could trust wiki.
I don't like the idea. It's like Islam only Christian.
Jesus came to set up HIS Kingdom, not a WORLDY Kingdom.
John 18:36
Christianity is spiritual and is a "being". BEING in tune with God.

In fact, the early Christians did not even want to MIX with the government and politics of the day. They had their own communities, their own ways of dealing with everyday life. Their own stores, doctors, etc.

Today this is impossible to do. The Amish do this. I wonder if they still are living in PA. But it would not even be allowed by our present day governments.